Lewis Hamilton said he did not know a great deal about Gilles Villeneuve when asked about the late Ferrari driver’s legacy ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, then joked that Villeneuve was “far better than his son.”
The seven-time world champion was speaking before this weekend’s race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where the Canadian Grand Prix takes place on a track renamed in Villeneuve’s honour after his death in a qualifying crash at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton, who now races for Ferrari and has won in Montreal a record-equalling seven times, said he had read up on the iconic driver and came away impressed by the way Villeneuve balanced the car at the limit.
“Yes, as much as I can say about it, I personally didn’t really know a lot about him, to be honest,” Hamilton said. “Obviously knew about Niki [Lauda] more so because I got to spend a lot of time with him, and obviously I had to learn and watch him when I was growing up.” He added: “So, whilst reading up on some of the great drivers that have been here, all I really knew is that he [Gilles] was a great driver. He seemed to be, from some of the videos, a driver that really was at the edge of his seat, really being able to balance the car as it’s moving, which was pretty cool to see.”
Gilles Villeneuve remains one of Ferrari’s most celebrated figures. He won all six of his Formula 1 Grands Prix with the team before his fatal crash in 1982, and his surname still carries weight in Canada because of the Montreal circuit that bears his name. Jacques Villeneuve later became Formula 1 world champion in 1997, giving the family a lasting place in the sport’s history even as Gilles’s career was cut short.
Hamilton’s aside about Jacques landed with a laugh, but the bigger point was his respect for a driver he admitted he had not studied closely until now. That contrast matters in Montreal, where the past is never far from the present and Ferrari’s current star is being asked to measure himself against one of the team’s defining names. The Canadian Grand Prix does that every year, and this one is no different.
Lance Stroll, who also weighed in on Villeneuve’s reputation, said he had no personal memory of him because he was not alive when Villeneuve raced. “But I think everyone says he was super brave and back then when you were on the limits of the car, there was always a chance of not coming out of the car. And he was not afraid to really push the car to the limit, and he was so talented,” Stroll said. For a home race built around a driver who died 43 years ago, that is the thread tying the weekend together: admiration, history and the reminder that Formula 1 still measures itself against its legends.
